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10/23/2012 1:41AM

Obama Scores Zinger with 'Bayonets, Horses'

President Barack Obama challenged Mitt Romney's criticism of the size of the U.S. Navy and Air Force by telling the former Governor the nation also has 'fewer horses and bayonets.' Photo: Getty Images.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... I'm ... a balance budgets ... I was in the world of business for twenty five years ... to balance your budget you when the business ... when to the Lundbeck's was out of balance and we got on balance amid the success they ... had the chance to be governor state ... for years in a row ... Democrats and Republicans came together to balance the budget ... to cut taxes nineteen times ... a balanced budget ... the present hasn't balance the budget yet ... I'd expect and the opportunity to sew myself ... or I may be able to balance the budget was talk about military spending ... and that's this darn re stock our Navy is older exceeding our Navy is smaller now that any time since nineteen seventy ... the Navy said they needed three hundred and thirteen ships to cure the mission when out and into an eighty five ... where headed down to the below two hundred to three ghosts who was SciQuest ration ... that's unacceptable may ... I wanna make sure the we have the ships that are required by or maybe ... our air force is older and smaller than anytime since it was founded ... in nineteen forty seven ... when change for the first time since FDR we're all since FDR we had the ... ball was the strategists and we confide in to conflicts at once ... now we're changing that one conflict ... but that did this in my view is the highest responsibility of the president of the nine states which is to maintain the safety of the American people ... and I will not cut our military budget ... by ten trillion dollars ... which is the culmination of the budget cuts to present ads ... as well as the SciQuest ration cuts ... that in my view is baking is to make in our future less certain than less secure Robert Miller comments on the ... first of all this question is ... not something that I propose something the Congress is proposed it will not have ... the budget a were talking about ... is not ... reducing our military spending cuts maintaining ... but ... I've that Governor Romney maybe ... it has a span of time looking at how our military works you you mention the Navy for example ... we have ... fewer ships than we did in nineteen sixty ... we also have fewer forces and bayonets ... because ... the nature of our Meltzer is change we have these things called aircraft carriers were planes land although ... we have ... these chips to go underwater nuclear submarines ... and so the question is not ... up to a game of battleship or cunning ships it's it's what our capabilities and so when I sit down ... with the Secretary of the Navy ... and the George uses that we determine how are we going to be ... best able to meet all of our defense needs ... in a way that also keeps pace with our troops ... that also make sure that our veterans have ... the kind of support that they need when they come home ... and ... that is not reflected in the kind of budget the reporting for work because ... it just doesn't work ... RI and no obvious to the website quite a bit ... and it still doesn't work ... cover of light ...